Federal election 2019: Perth teacher that Scott Morrison hopes will help him win

Peter de KruijffThe West Australian

Saturday, 18 May 2019 2:00AM

Camera IconRosalie Jones is a WA woman who has featured heavily in Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's speeches during the election campaign around franking credits. Credit: The West Australian, Justin Benson-Cooper.

Meet the retired Perth primary school teacher who Prime Minister Scott Morrison hopes will help him win today’s election.

Rosalie Jones has been constantly called on by Mr Morrison as an example of why people should not deliver Labor into government.

Mr Morrison shared Ms Jones’ story at his campaign launch on Sunday and has repeatedly referenced the 69-year-old this week and again on Thursday at his final major speech.

As explained by Mr Morrison in multiple speeches, Ms Jones is on an annual income of $30,000 and receives $1800 from franking credit refunds which would be lost should Labor win the election.

However, Mr Morrison has not mentioned that Ms Jones also has $1.05m in assets made up of $400,000 in super, a unit she lives in valued at $350,000, another unit worth $150,000 and the rest of her money - about $150,000 - made up in cash and shares.

“She saved for her retirement. She doesn’t qualify for the pension. She’s a self-funded retiree. She has an income of $30,000 a year, which includes franking credits of $1800. She doesn’t see it as ‘a gift’,” Mr Morrison told a press conference this week.

“It’s what she’s worked hard for and saved hard for, so she can live on it.”

The West Australian on Wednesday tracked down Ms Jones, who lives alone at a Forrestfield retirement village, where she revealed she was contacted by Liberal Party HQ last week after she made a submission to the parliamentary inquiry into the impact of Labor’s proposed franking credits changes.

Ms Jones says the loss of the $1800 might not seem like a lot but it was money which could go towards private health insurance. For other retirees the loss of a franking credit could have a bigger impact, she said.

The same night as Mr Morrison’s speech, his office rang Ms Jones to see if she would like to meet him for a coffee the next day in Bennett Springs.

“I thought ‘my goodness’,” Ms Jones said.

“He was very very nice, and before he came I met (Hasluck MP) Ken Wyatt and his wife, who was really lovely, and we had a good chat because all of us were teachers at one stage.”

With all the attention on her Ms Jones asked Mr Morrison at the meeting why he had picked her out of all the submissions to the inquiry.

“He said he read it and liked what it said. That surprised me because there were so many submissions put in,” she said.

Politics has never been a passion of Ms Jones who sees herself as a swing voter who backed the Democrats at an election once.

“I look at their policies, I’ve voted Labor in the past but I have voted Liberal and sometimes I think I’d like to go with a different party than the two big ones,” she said.

“I quite liked Julia Gillard when she came in, I thought she did a reasonable job but on this election I’m just not in favour of the Labor policies or what they’re going to do.

“It’s only $1800 to me but for some people it’s 25 per cent of their income if they’re in a self-managed super fund.”

Grattan Insitute Research Fellow Brendan Coates said it was not accurate to claim Labor’s franking credits policy was taking from the poor to give to the rich given pensioners and part time pensioners are exempt. He said those impacted by the changes represented the wealthiest 20 to 25 per cent of retirees.